Pamie 
india 
National Geographic Society- 


India's border races 
1922. 


= d~ 


GEOGRAPHIC NEWS BULLETIN 4 


ON 


INDIA'S BORDER RACES 


| PREPARED AND ISSUED BY 
gL ELEY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 


| (Founded in 1888, for the Increase and Diffusion of Geographic Knowledge) 
No, 27-=--C,P,S, General Headquarters, Washington, D. C. . | 


Release Immediate ly, 
Washington, D, C,. 

Even though Europe has been boiling with war rumors and 
almost monopolizing public attention, the raids along Indiats northwest 
border have been important enough to break into the news columns time 
and again in recent weeks, Normally they might be dismissed as 
"Indiats annual frontier war," ‘But with the Near Bact. Central Asia 
and India itself seething with unrest, any mud-walled Afghan village, 
with its battlemented towers might become an Asiatic Roast says a 
bulletin from the qWaenineto a. D. C., headquarters of the National 
Geographic shchety: dealing with the peoples of India's borderland, 

"From Armenia to Waziristan, wherever wild mountains desti-~ 
tute of crops frown down on rich valleys and wide, fertile plains, 
there persists the anachronistic struggle between the freedomeloving 
bandolero of the mountain fastnesses and the peace-loving plainsman, © 
Steadfast stand the frontiers which separate the regions where law and 
order are 4 note from those where tie are a hindrance. 

Fronticrsmen a Wild Lot (Subhead) 
"The tribes which inhabit the jumble of land between the 


Indus and the Afghan boundary are a wild lot. Malarialms left its 


a 


INDIA'S BORDER RACES (Page 2) 


mark on many, but the fittest have survived, Climate and famine, 
knife and jezail have disposed of the weaklings, Neither Afghan nor 
Sriton has ever been able completely to subdue the freedom-loving 
mountaineers who inhabit this raphe Ee of warlike clans which have 
oeen used pro and con according to where the best fighting was promised 
and the best pay offered, 

"These are the Independent Bribes, each with its own William 
Tell, And if their independence is noticeable from beyond tne breast- 
works of their beloved hills, their local independence is just as 
marked, For every man who has fallen beeane the invader, many another 
has fallen in the interminable inter-tribal blood-feuds, 

"In Ceylon, an Afghan is an outlander who wears wide trousers 
and a peaked cap inside his huge turban, whose business is that of 
banker, and whose word is as good as gold, Along the northwest 
frontier a Pathan is an Afghan who has taken up residence inside the 
uncertain boundary line of India. There is a considerable confusion 
of terms and there are so many tribes and subetribes that even authori- 
ties admit their inability to trace the linguistic and ethnological 
Hieiicenanes So perhaps it is as well to let Kipling picture the | 


frontier tribesman, 


— 


"Wee Willie Winkle rode the gullies near the Khyber till the 
day came when he rode to rescue Mis 6 Allardyce; The Man Who Was came 
back like a homing pigeon through that sword-cut in the hills to the 
mess of the White Huzzars; Wade: who sought to bring about the 


Mutiny of the Mavericks, here found his death on an Afghan knife; Drums 


<~ 


e s * * . aA 


INDIA'S BORDER RACHS (Page 3) 


of the Fore and Aft echoed from the towering hills; Terence iGivatens 
Jock Learoyd and Ortheris knew the border bec ae and its people well; 
and down near the scuthwest end of the Pathan country lies the body of 
Jack barrett awaiting the Last Great bugle Call. Yes, Kipling knows 
his frontier country. He called its people 'gentlemen of Jewish 
extraction who lived across the border and answered to the name of 
Pathan,! 

"One might call the region the land of Pushto and eer aa for 
Pushto is the language which binds most of the tribes together even 
more closely than their Mohammedan religion, The eee a yellow 
sheepskin coat, with the wocl inside, with elaborate embroidery upon it 
and a scent which cold alone can kill, is as distinctive a feature of 
the winter costume as are the wide trousers or peaked skull-cap wrapped 


round with a white lungi with flowing ends, 


Flood (Subhead) 


Pathans Claim Jewish 


"The Pathans claim descent from the lost. tribes of Israel, 
who were carried captive into Media by Nebuchadnezzar, That makes 
them close relatives of the [Turani Afghans, whose dynasty still rules 
Afghanistan. But there are Pathans and Pathans and locally at least 
they are called by other names, 

"Who has not heard of the Afridi, the finest skirmisher in 
the ate but who languishes in the plains? Taught to distrust all 
nae especially his near relations, the Afridi parent baptizes his 
infant: in burglary by passing it through such a hole in the mud wall 
as the snaky haired thief is wont to cut and admonishing it to 'Be a 


thief, be a thief,' His rule is 'Strike first, or you may not strike 


a 2 &* me 


INDIAtS BORDER RACES (Page 4) 


at all.! crafty, ireaehomeus: ee the Afridi is a true Pathan. 
"What the Pathan can become through prosperity is shown by 
the Dawari, who hold rich lands in the Tochi Valley. Morally the 
lowest of Rees subject to fevers, vedoa ene: dependent upon British 
protection, they have advanced far enough from the bandit stage to learn 
%0O stand together instead of to hold the principle of every man Tor 
himself, and so through the strength which comes from unity they have 


held their own against the encircling Waziris who are stronger men, 
Trade Depends on the Ghilzai (Subhead) 


"The man who wins deepest admiration is the Ghilzai, upon 
whose caravans the frontier trade depends, Oncevthern eae ruled 
Persia. Now they weave the shuttle of trade back and forth between 
Central Asia and ‘the Indian Hadas bringing the rich rugs of Bokhara 
and Persian pussyecats past the stern walls of Fort Jamrud to the 
Kabuli Bazaar in Peshawar, Tricky as a gypsy in horseetrading, full 
of contempt for the Hindu and of fellow feeling for the sikh, warriors 
by rie oi robbers by nature, traders by Bebe oauyat the Ghilzais are 
a eine, manly lot whose early forbears, of Turkish Le. lived in the 
Central Asian lands from whence they bring down the dried fruits of 
Murghab and the Zerafshan, Tramping along with his heavyenecked camels, 
his powerful chest bared to sun and wind, the Ghilzai is a fine figure 
of a nets one who, dropped among the flat-faced peoples of the South 
could well be thought a god, 

"The Kakar comes of an ancient race but is unworthy of /family 
tree, ‘Kick a filthy Kakar out of the mosque and you will save 


trouble all round.! The Khattaks are an important tribe, quiet and 


Sad a 
ca a id * + 


INDIA'S BORDER RACES (Page 5) 

loyal to the British, His enemies say 'The Khattak can nae) but he 
is a man of one charge,! 

| "In the rich Sach cece live. the eed coe rons Een 
tall and muscular, Ceres has won them from Mars, but they have Pathan 
qualities hidden beneath the self-interest that comes from fat fields, 

"More warlike are the Mohmands, Only the Afridies and 

Waziris have given more trouble,. Fevers have robbed them of height 
and they lack the abandon of the Afridi, But they are treacherous and 
cruel, haughty and grasping. ‘Hold up a rupee and you may see any 
Mohmand, man or woman' is the way their more independent brothers 


characterize them, 
Wonderland Ilome of Outcasts (Subhead) 


"The outcast Orakzais dwell in one of the loveliest spots 
along the ruoeiio® the Mastura Valley. Orakzai means ‘lost tribes! 
and their origin is unknown. They cultivate the fields in winter but 
retire to the hills with the heat and although they resemble the 
Afghans in face and tongue, are repulsed by them, 

"Different in appearance and dress are the Shrianis who dwell 
near Dera Ismail Khan, They have Padahony vd features, but high cheek 
bones, Thin, hardy and active, they wear a coarse black blanket tied 
oe ene middle and another thrown over their shoulders, ‘They 
depend more upon the bullock than upon the camel for transport and are 
mainly agriculturalists, | 

Wine Swatis, most bigoted of Afghans, are Sunni Mohammedans, 
The Turis are Shiites, Se hardy and courageous, fine horsemen 


whose indiscretions called forth the expedition of 1856 into their 


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INDIA'S BORDER RACES (Page 6) 


beautiful Kurram Valley home, since which time they have settled down 
to the blessings of law and order, to the disgust of less fortunate: 


neighbors, 
The Difference an "I" Makes’ (Subhead) 


"Call an Afghan tWazir! and he will show gratitude. Call 
him 'Waziri' and he may kill without warning, for the eos the 
largest of Pathan tribes, are considered as dregs of the earth by their 
fellow Afghans. Their women are free and often Gneetaheun their men 
hot-headed and vain. Their environment has given them fine bodies, 
but their souls are unredeemed. The Mohammedans consider them 
barbarians and their reputation for robbery, which is almost legal, and 
murder, which is often convenient, has brought disrespect to the 
customs of the border. Amid the labyrinth of hills which keep apart 
the various peoples of the Northwest Frontier Province BYE panties 
mountains separate the many peoples of the BRE pote the Waziris 
inhabit a little Switzerland of their own, Nowhere is there a better 
example of a region where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile, 

“Manhood is the first requisite of him who Howes to join’an 
Afghan tribe, He must win his spurs before he is Bene wife and — 
his share in the tribal lands. Although it is a truism that the 
Afghan is faithless and that it is better to have no friends at all 
there are three principles of the Pathan moral code which are seldom 
violated, Even an enemy has the right of sean revenge is a solemn 
duty and hospitality is a primary virtue. Hach village ras its guest 
house where visitors are entertained and where sleep the vachelors of 


the tribe, 


INDIA'S BORDER RACES*({Page 7) 


"Behind the coat of dirt which is the right of every tribes- 
man except on durbar days both men and women are more than ordinarily 
good looking, In most tribes the women are jealously guarded and the 
reward for adultery is death to the woman and the loss of his right 


foot to her paramour, 


The Afghan Scorns Trade (Subhead) 


sien ieemeeneel 


“Warrior, freebooter, oer. thief the true Afghan will 
not keep a shop or learn a trade, The hills are his eet his 
knife his bosom friend, his matchlock his protector, Up through the 
passes cut by the Gomal, the mocHt! the Kurram and the Kabul Mae 
trade runs the gauntlet of the Pathans, the wTitles of the Indian 
troops, many of the best of whom are recruited in the hills are ever 
pitted against the matchlock of the tribesman, The organized troops 
are condemned to forts and trails. The hill men never register and 
their movements are mysterious and sudden, | 

"So where mountain meets plain, as where the desert meets the 
sown, two modes of life fight for their ideals, Agriculture, trade, 
inducers, civilization-=all desire law, oy cooperation, security. 
But hiding behind his chosen crag, separated even from his closest 
friends, matching his eye-sight against that of his foe, his trigger 
finger against that of his enemy, his knife thrust against the lunge of 
a lance is the anachronistic eahon, to whom freedom is more than peace 
and wild adventure more than life itself, 

"He may lend himself to this faction or that, to empire or 


democracy, to progress or destruction, But above every other interest 


INDIA'S DORDER RACES (Page 8) 


is his desire for independence, Divided into two classes. according 
to whether he dwells in mud-walled house or heavy tent, the heritage 
he seeks is still the open spaces where he overlooks the plains, and 
friendly contact with the berren, rugged slopes of his eternal hills, 
"One or the other of the sects of Mohanmedanism is the 
dominant religion among these borderland peoples, But there is @ 
touch of paganism as well. This is especially true in the case of 
the outcast tribes, the Wagiri and ine’ Graces), whose Mohammedanism is 


so degraded as to be hardly worthy of the name," 


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